Actress Cate Blanchett poses in her hotel room in New York October 4, 2007. A new movie about Bob Dylan is the first dramatic portrayal of his life and music that the reclusive performer has approved, but Oscar-winning actress Blanchett says fans may struggle to understand it. Picture taken October 4, 2007. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton (UNITED STATES)
Ran on: 10-10-2007
Cate Blanchett had initial doubts, but decided to assume the throne again in &quo;Elizabeth: The Golden Age.&quo; less

Actress Cate Blanchett poses in her hotel room in New York October 4, 2007. A new movie about Bob Dylan is the first dramatic portrayal of his life and music that the reclusive performer has approved, but ... more

Photo: SHANNON STAPLETON

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Reprising the role she originated in ELIZABETH, Cate Blanchett returns for a gripping historical thriller in ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE. Laurie Sparham / Universal Studios

Reprising the role she originated in ELIZABETH, Cate Blanchett returns for a gripping historical thriller in ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE. Laurie Sparham / Universal Studios

Photo: Ho

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Cate Blanchett back on the throne

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Cate Blanchett has played the 16th century British monarch Elizabeth I twice now, in "Elizabeth," the 1998 drama that made her a star and earned her an Oscar nomination, and again this year in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age."

As she sweeps into a suite at Toronto's Four Seasons Hotel, the casting seems obvious. Her posture erect, dressed simply in short black trousers, a blue and green satin pullover and stiletto pumps that add inches to her already willowy height, the Australian actress' bearing is nothing short of regal.

Since that first best actress nod in 1999, there have been two more in the supporting actress category, most recently this year for her role as a teacher who has an affair with a student in "Notes on a Scandal." She took home the statuette in 2005 when she played another royal figure (albeit of the Hollywood variety), Katharine Hepburn, in Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic "The Aviator."

Blanchett appears to be a shoo-in for another nomination in 2008, maybe two. At September's Toronto International Film Festival, the buzz was in overdrive, not just because of her turn as the now middle-aged queen Elizabeth, but also for her role as Jude Quinn in Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There." One of the six actors representing various facets of Bob Dylan, Blanchett nails the singer - his charisma, narcissism, playfulness and brattiness circa his mid-1960s abandonment of acoustic folk music for rock 'n' roll.

Her performances in both roles are completely seamless. Blanchett does not just merely act the parts; she inhabits the roles as if they were a second skin. She makes it look so easy, but she admits that playing such iconic personalities presents a particular challenge.

"When you're presented with the prospect of playing Dylan or Elizabeth I, it's so overwhelming, you can get sort of paralyzed very quickly," she says.

"I always find something practical to do when I start off," she adds. "I think, 'Right, I'm going to read this book or I'm going to listen to this piece of music or I'm going to learn how to play the guitar.' Having something practical to do distracts you and frees up your mind to be able to think about it."

The first time Blanchett played Elizabeth I, part of her homework consisted of watching a 1993 BBC documentary on former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, "Thatcher: The Downing Street Years."

"It was very interesting to watch a female ruler of enormous power, who was often accused of being more male than female," she says.

If anything, that observation applies even more to "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," as the drama captures both the vulnerability and the steel of Elizabeth I in her middle years. Blanchett plays a queen beset by personal demons in her attraction to adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) and political intrigue, as her imprisoned cousin Mary Stuart (Samantha Morton) and Spain's Philip II (Jordi MollÀ) conspire to take the throne away from Elizabeth, a gambit that culminates with the Spanish Armada's failed invasion.

"When the Spanish Armada invaded, Elizabeth was probably well into what was considered her old age," Blanchett, 39, says. "She would have been in her early 50s and still plowing the line that she was a virgin and fecund and available for marriage. It did become quite a joke really, but it was such a successful political tool."

The Melbourne native insists the film is no dry history lesson, but reflective of the way that women in positions of power are perceived. "Even in 2007, women who are in leadership roles are often accused of being ballbreakers or masculine," Blanchett notes. "Their gender is always up for grabs, so there are always these kind of bizarre histories and accounts of Elizabeth. That she was a hermaphrodite. That she was a man really. How could a woman behave like that? So even though the film deals with a very female conundrum - I haven't had a child; I don't have a partner; what does it mean to be female? - at the same time, I didn't think of her as being any particular gender, because she had attributes that are traditionally seen as being male and was able to rule the country with an iron fist."

For all of her enthusiasm for the role, Blanchett confesses that she was initially reluctant to revisit the character. "Elizabeth" director Shekhar Kapur and producer Tim Bevan began discussing the idea of a sequel several years ago, and the actress felt that not enough time had passed.

"I didn't want to be revisiting past glories or something disgusting like that. So, it really had to be a strong script and a strong reason for doing it," she says.

It was only when she had William Nicholson and Michael Hirst's screenplay in hand that her enthusiasm for the film grew. The prospect of exploring a love triangle among Elizabeth, Raleigh and the queen's handmaiden Bess (Abbie Cornish) intrigued her and so did the opportunity to explore this facet of Elizabeth I's life.

"The project suddenly went from a little bit trepidatious to extremely exciting. Enough time had passed to be able to tell a different story and for her and for me, physically, to have been in a different place from where I was 10 years ago. I think that's important, because then you could tell unpalatable things about a woman's fear of getting older," she says.

Next year, Blanchett and her husband, writer-director Andrew Upton, take on a new challenge when they become the artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company. A year ago, she visited New York with the troupe, wowing audiences and critics in the title role in "Hedda Gabler." While this new chapter in her career will be time consuming, she expects to continue balancing between movies and the stage, taking to heart a lesson imbedded in "I'm Not There."

"My husband said you could approach the film not knowing anything about Dylan, because it's actually about a creative life and kind of the ad hoc crazy freedom that that provides you," she explains. "There's no linear narrative to a creative life. People always try to say, 'Oh, I see, you did this to get here and that to get there,' which you can say in retrospect, but at the time, it is like a rolling stone, you do just kind of move forward."